


Earth 23 - Petra Parker, the not female intern

by Cammerel



Series: Starker - Multiverse Shenanigans [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Actual Gay Icon Tony Stark, Crossdressing, Crossdressing Peter Parker, Internalized Homophobia, It's all Tony, M/M, Multiverse, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony being ashamed of himself all over the place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-28 09:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20964089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cammerel/pseuds/Cammerel
Summary: Tony finally manages to find universes where he and Peter are a real couple after the first dud. It’s insightful, truly. And even though he probably shouldn’t tempt fate, he continues to dig for more and more proof.On the twenty-third, things take a real turn into weird - at least, as far as he’s seen. All of the others certainly have their little quirks but, in many ways, it’s still the same. But this one…





	Earth 23 - Petra Parker, the not female intern

Tony finally manages to find universes where he and Peter /are/ a real couple after the first dud. It’s insightful, truly. And even though he probably shouldn’t tempt fate, he continues to dig for more and more proof.

The dial on his little unnamed gizmo is finally registering a cluster of about twenty-five multiverse scenarios and, sure enough, he’s the thirteenth in the cluster and there’s a few on the back end he has yet to visit, but he takes his time on the far side first.

Tony’s gotten better at the spy stuff as he goes through each one.

On the twenty-third, things take a real turn into weird - at least, as far as he’s seen. All of the others certainly have their little quirks but, in many ways, it’s still the same. But this one…

He lurks around Stark Industries for half a day, trying to find a way in without giving his position away, but he’s not having much luck. Most of the time, it’s either Peter or his other self that manages to let him in. But no one comes in or out for nearly an entire twelve hours.

It isn’t until almost midnight when he realizes that… this isn’t his home anymore. Sure enough, it’s just being used as some sort of storage unit for most of his old suits and probably some sort of emergency set.

He heads to New York, finding the Stark tower completely untouched and fully intact. In fact, one might think that the battle for New York had never even happened. He lands and walks around the flight pad to the door, risking entering and feeling his heart ache when a familiar voice speaks up.

“Mr. Stark, or imposter of Mr. Stark,” JARVIS says calmly, “If you would state your purpose in this facility for me, I would greatly appreciate it. I am also currently in the process of reporting this disturbance to-”

“My other self, right,” Tony nods, “I wouldn’t expect less. Can you actually /not/ contact him? I’d like to chat. It’s been a long time JARVIS, how are you holding up?”

“Sir?”

Tony waves dismissively, “I’m no threat, I promise. How are you, J?”

“I assure you I am performing optimally. Though I am quite concerned with the fact that there are two of you registering in the building at the moment.”

“That’s not at all unusual,” Tony tries to assure him, “I’m from a different universe,” he shows off his portal device, “This is what I used. Really, it’s not that big of a deal, I just wanna see how he’s doing, you know. It’s great to hear your voice, J. Been a long time-”

He stops when the door to his left opens and a woman steps in, stopping when she sees him.

“Mr. Stark,” she says in surprise and Tony’s eyes narrow (he knows that voice anywhere), glancing her up and down to take in the full ensemble, “I thought you were resting.”

“Change of plans,” Tony says confidently, deactivating his bleeding edge tech before moving closer to her and leaning on the bar, “What’s your… name again, cutie?”

She blushes, looking away in what can only be assumed is… humiliation?

“I’m so sorry, sir. I-I’m Petra.”

“Petra,” Tony responds and smiles slowly as he laces his fingers together, his gaze darkening, “Not… Peter, by any chance?”

Her eyes widen, head whipping back around to gawk at him, “S-s-sir!? I-I… n-n-no… oh… shit. Am-am I in trouble? Oh shit, I’m so sorry-”

Tony’s smile grows, “That depends,” he cuts of Peter’s meltdown as he starts pouring a glass of water, “On why exactly you’re lying to me about who you really are. I could be convinced pretty easily to overlook the getup you’re wearing, so long as there’s nothing nefarious going on.”

Peter doesn’t take off his wig or change anything really to make it more clear, but Tony can tell just by looking at him that he’s still a man underneath all of the makeup. Had he maybe never met Peter before, he might not have ever been the wiser. But he /does/ know Peter, somewhat intimately as of late even. That mouth, that jaw, that gorgeous nose of his. Unmistakable.

“I-I wasn’t… trying to deceive you, sir,” Peter stutters, “I promise, honest. I would… I would never… I… I just wanted…”

Tony motions for Peter to come closer and he does, his brown hair falling in his face. It’s a convincing wig. Very convincing, very nice. It’s actually pretty damn sexy, seeing the kid all dolled up and looking like a nice afternoon snack.

He reaches out to comb the loose lock of hair back behind Peter’s ear, touching his chin and lifting it so their eyes meet, “It’s okay, no need to be shy with me, Peter-”

The door opens again, but this time it’s his other self that strolls through, “Petra, I-” he stops, his hand coming up quickly as he activates his wrist watch and aims the repulsor of his gauntlet, “Get away from her!”

Peter turns and so does he, Tony moving back and holding his hands up.

He sighs and puts them behind his head, “Sorry, okay. Maybe that was too much. I promise I’m not here to do any damage.”

Peter looks between them, “What’s… what’s g-going on, Mr. Stark?”

“Petra, get behind me,” his other self says calmly, taking a few steps forward and Peter does as he’s told, “Who are you and what are you doing-”

“I’m you. I’m of no threat,” Tony reiterates, looking around, “Ask JARVIS, he’ll tell you that I’m an exact match.”

“He is, sir,” JARVIS responds, “In every way that matters? Yes. He is exact. Although… he does seem to be somewhat malnourished in comparison.”

Tony frowns in confusion, “I’m not malnourished, I-... took up running. And… haven’t really been sleeping well lately. I’m not malnourished.”

“Forgive me, sir’s,” JARVIS says and Tony smiles again, “The Tony Stark that entered through the flight pad is approximately 25.1 pounds lighter. And, although it is not obvious to the naked eye, there are other subtle differences.”

Tony looks at himself and vice versa.

“Alright,” his other self says slowly, “So why are you here? Everything’s fine, why would you be poking your head around?”

Tony smiles sheepishly, “I was curious?”

“Do better than ‘curious’.”

“I wanted to see what the timelines close to mine were like,” Tony admits, “It’s a bit more than that, but seeing as the events I’m looking for haven’t transpired here just yet, well… I don’t want to spoil anything for you boys.”

He realizes he’s said it the moment it comes out.

His other self looks at him in confusion and then looks at Petra, “What?” he motions, “This is a wom-...” he stops, eyes widening.

“I take it you never took a close look at your…” Tony offers to Peter, “What /are/ you, actually?”

“Ass-assistant? Mentee?” Peter guesses, “I-I’m an intern, actually. But I’ve been doing a lot more than that l-... lately,” he looks to the Tony standing in front of him, now staring at him in a different light, “I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. I didn’t mean to lie to you, honestly. I just wanted to be close-”

“You’re a man,” his other self says a little slowly, “You’re a man,” he realizes again, “That makes a lot more sense, actually.”

“The Adam’s apple didn’t tip it off?”

His doppelganger shrugs, “Some women have them. Or he could’ve been trans. Point is, I didn’t want to pry. It’s not my business and wasn’t, not unless she… he?”

Peter nods.

“Unless he wanted me to know.”

Tony smiles as he watches the exchange between them, “I actually have about a thousand questions for /both/ of you, especially young Mr. Parker here.”

Peter blushes furiously and starts to hide his face.

“Did the battle of New York happen?”

His other self looks at him again, “Did what happen? What battle? What about New York?”

“Okay, so that’s a ‘no’,” he motions to Peter, “You, been bitten by any spiders lately?”

“What?”

Peter nods nervously, “Actually, yeah. Wait, how do /you/ know about that?”

“Where’s Pepper?”

“Who?” his other self asks.

“Pepper… Potts,” Tony elaborates.

“Ah,” his other self looks to Peter, saying lowly, “I think he means Virginia.”

Tony nods, “Yeah, her. You two never got married? Together? Had kids?” he starts suggesting, “Did she even ever work here?”

“I’m gay,” his other self supplies and it still kind of stings to hear it, that darker part of him wanting to cover his ears to protect himself from it, “Virginia was my assistant. She’s a mutant or something now, I guess? Not sure what terminology they’re using. She works with the Avengers Initiative that Fury wanted me in but didn’t want me in.”

“Okay, so /that/ did happen,” Tony chuckles, putting his hands in his pockets, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry. I’m /very/ curious. This is a very different world than what I’m used to in my own. Why are you dressing like a girl?” he asks Peter then, “What’s the point of the getup in the first place? If you wanted my attention, changing it up wouldn’t help your case in this world.”

Peter’s eyes widen, “I /didn’t/ want the attention, actually,” he says, his voice small and he winces again, “I’m sorry Mr. Stark.”

“Forget it, kid,” his other self says, gaze heated in an all too familiar way, “So, who are you when you’re not moonlighting as my bright assistant?”

Peter stands up straight, rolling his shoulders, “I’m… I’m Spider-man.”

His doppelganger starts laughing.

Tony and Peter share a look, Tony rolling his eyes finally and clearing his throat, “He is.”

His other self stops and turns to Peter, “Really?” Peter nods, “That’s impressive. Oh… Peter Parker, right. Yup, that makes sense, went right over my head.”

“Are you out?” Tony asks before he can stop himself and the other two men in the room turn to him in confusion, “It’s just that I’m still kind of grappling with the idea myself, but are you telling me that you’re… ‘out’… in this universe?”

“Out?” his other self asks, “Out of what?”

“The closet?” Tony suggests.

“What closet?”

His other self and Peter are the ones that share the look this time.

“Don’t tell me that this is a universe where being gay is actually normalized-”

“Being gay is /very/ normal,” the other Tony says, running his hand down the right side of his chest, “Are you telling me that there are universes where it isn’t?”

“Jesus.”

His other self blinks in surprise, “Alright. That’s my limit,” he looks to Peter, “I’m gonna go do what I was /supposed/ to be doing - sleeping off this hangover. We’ll talk later, /Peter/.”

Peter bites his bottom lip, “Please don’t fire me, sir. I need this job.”

“We’ll talk later,” he says firmly, glancing Peter over in that /way/ again before his eyes snap to Tony, “Don’t touch him or I’ll make you regret it.”

Tony holds up his arms innocently.

“At least now I know I’m not bisexual,” his other self mutters as he moves to the elevator, “And here I thought I was experincing some kind of mid-life revelation.”

Tony watches him leave. He could never imagine being that comfortable with his own sexuality. God. What would it even be like? Of course, it sounds like this universe has a few things set in its favor, so maybe it was just as easy as anything else.

He finally looks to Peter, smiling apologetically, “Sorry for outing you.”

“It’s okay,” Peter says at first before stopping, crossing his arms, “A-actually, you know what? It’s n-not okay. You just completely blew my cover-”

“You deserved better.”

“I would’ve gotten around to it-”

“Would you have?” Tony asks, brows rising, “I’m not sure you would’ve.”

“It’s just that he doesn’t need to look at me like that.”

Tony’s voice softens, stepping closer to Peter once more, “Like what?”

Peter blushes, “Like an object,” he says, his bottom lip trembling, “I wanted him to respect me, to respect my work. To…”

“To..?” Tony holds out his arms, “Take you seriously?”

Peter nods, swallowing.

“But you’re in love with him, right?”

The young man’s eyes widen.

“Yeah,” Tony sighs out and takes a seat on the couch, “I thought as much.”

Peter groans and sits as well, but further away, as far away as possible on the same piece of furniture, “Is it like that everywhere?”

“So far? Yes,” Tony confirms, “Every time, actually. I mean, there’s this one guy that’s all alone in a Peter-less universe, but he’s the exception. And so am I, I guess. Everywhere else, though, we’re it. Just… not my time.”

Peter looks to him, sadness in his eyes, “Not in your time?” he asks lowly, “What happened?”

Tony shrugs, “I fucked up royally, I guess.”

“That bad?”

“He’s…” Tony rubs his jaw, curling on his side on the couch to look at Peter, “He’s in a relationship with someone else. I pushed him away when he told me about his feelings for me. So, I fucked up. That’s on me. It’s just kind of been a mess in my little corner of the multiverse lately.”

“I’m sorry,” Peter says, finally taking off his wig and cap, running his hands through to take out the bobby pins holding his bangs in place, “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“No, it’s exactly what I asked for. I told him to drop it, to forget about it, that it would never happen. And he did,” Tony says, feeling the knot forming in his throat, “I was too full of homophobia that I couldn’t bare the thought of actually…” he closes his mouth at the look Peter gives him.

“What’s homophobia?” Peter asks, “Is that like… a fear of being gay or something?”

Tony chuckles and nods, “Kind of? It’s difficult to explain because the actual definition of it is something completely different. But /I/ was afraid of-... what you just said. And that… kept me away from everything I really wanted. Instead I surrounded myself with women and perfume and a nice pair of… credentials.”

Peter purses his lips, “I can’t even imagine you trying to be with women,” he admits, making a face, “Tony Stark is a huge gay icon. I mean,” he blushes, voice getting so small that Tony almost doesn’t hear it, “I’ve been in love with him since I was like… six years old.”

“Oh, kid,” Tony sighs and smiles at him, “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

Peter smiles as well, ducking his head and pulling his legs up, “When I applied for the internship…” he shrugs, “I-I mean, he’s always been very untamed. I didn’t want to be another headline. I wanted him to look at me and see my brain, not… other things.”

“Right.”

“So I-”

“So you got all dolled up and applied as ‘Petra Parker’?” he asks.

Peter nods.

“Makes sense,” he agrees, “And does he?”

“What?”

“Does he see you for your brain?”

Peter looks away, his face heating.

It only takes a single silent beat for Tony to realize /why/ he’s so embarrassed, “Oh,” he says slowly, “So despite your attempts to have him behave, he still didn’t. How long has /that/ been going on?”

Peter clears his throat, glancing down at his chest, “Only a-a… a few times. We haven’t… it never got-well it… today it kind of got-… but never-”

“Obviously, otherwise he wouldn’t have been surprised you were a man.”

“Right.”

“But he doesn’t know how you really feel,” Tony concludes, “God, even dressed as a woman you managed to make another version of me question my sexuality.” He shakes his head in disbelief, “How do you do it?” he asks rhetorically, “How do you manage to completely flip my world upside down and fit me so perfectly?”

Peter shrugs, “I-I… honestly, I didn’t even know. I-I just thought… he… was-I don’t know… trying something new.”

“Highly doubtful,” Tony says in his defense, “I hate taking that risk. If he wanted you-” he motions to Peter, “God, even I want you. Look at you. You’re fucking beautiful.”

Peter blushes again, the color reaching his ears, smile widening on his painted lips.

“God, I’ve been stupid,” he drops his head on his arm, “All of that time you were right in front of me.”

“We all make mistakes.”

“Not me,” Tony says firmly, “Not like this, not after Pepper. I knew I needed to be open, to be honest. And there I was making the exact same mistake a second time. A mistake I should’ve learned from. I pushed her away, she pushed herself away, whatever - it was on me. And then I chased my Peter right into the arms of another person.”

Peter frowns and moves a little closer to him, touching the back of his hand, “You don’t think he still loves you?”

“Why would he?” Tony asks, the bitter sting of his words settling in his chest, “I wouldn’t. Not after that, not after I completely humiliated him. Besides, he should be happy. There’s no reason I should complicate his life by insisting that I be a part of it.”

“I don’t think you’re giving yourself enough credit,” Peter responds, “I mean, you said it yourself, right? You’ve been to other universes and it’s always been us?”

“For the most part,” Tony nods, “There was one where you died. That Tony was… something else.”

“So, if it’s always us, why not fight for him?”

Tony smiles sadly and feels a tear slip down his cheek without his express authorization, “Because I’m broken.”

Peter’s eyes glass over as well.

“After everything I’ve been through, Peter should have someone that won’t make his life miserable,” Tony explains. He probably wouldn’t share this with anyone else, but he feels like he can be honest with Peter, “My world isn’t like this one. We had a tyrant bent on destroying half the universe. He’s been haunting my nightmares since 2012, when he sent an army to try and destroy everything from New York to Beijing. And after all of that, he eventually /succeeded/, more or less.”

Peter looks stricken by the concept.

“I couldn’t stop it from happening, I couldn’t save them,” Tony continues, the flood gate opening, “Half the entire universe gone in a snap. Thank God he didn’t take Peter with him, otherwise I would’ve really lost it. But that didn’t make things easier. It just made it that much harder. Every day I had to watch that kid as he started to grow into a man. And when he told me how he felt… /I/ acted childish, I pushed him away. Despite everything that had happened before, with the snap… I was still terrified of being-… of wanting him.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Tony shakes his head, wiping his face as he looks away, “I didn’t know what I was missing. I’m an idiot.”

“So fix it.”

Tony glances at him.

“I mean it,” Peter says more confidently, “Apologize.”

“I did.”

“Apologize again,” Peter stands up, “I don’t know our relationship well, okay? I’ve had four really /heated/ make out sessions or whatever, where things sometimes got… kind of awkward, especially like… whatever happened thirty minutes ago. So I’m not as familiar with it as you seem to be. This is all a little new for me. But you love him like I love mine, that’s pretty plain to see. And if you love him, if you want him, tell him. Don’t stand around here telling a different Peter. One who’s…” he looks towards the door, “Already pretty much head over heels.”

Tony smiles, “Maybe. Speak for yourself, underoos.”

Peter makes a face at the nickname.

“You should tell him how you feel.”

Peter nods, back straightening, “I will,” he smiles at Tony, “But not like this. He deserves to know the truth. The whole truth, all of it.”

“He does.”

Tony makes a shooing motion, “Go on, I’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure, Mr. Stark?”

“I’m sure, I’ve seen enough here to validate this ongoing theory. And…” Tony clears his throat, “Keep calling him that - ‘Mr. Stark’ - chances are he likes it.”

It never hurts to pay it forward, not even a little.

**Author's Note:**

> There's more, there's always more. but I wanted to keep this one as a one-shot instead of splitting it up for chapters. Hope y'all enjoyed!
> 
> This fic series (which is already over 44k) and anything I write like it are already posted elsewhere first and foremost. With at least 10+ Starker fics incoming over there, I figured I'd toss something up here for the time being, but updates will be slow as I have many other Starker WIPs and not a lot of real time.
> 
> For full releases at once, visit my Tumblr @Cammerel to find out more (speech bubble in the bottom right).


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